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Almas ancestrales: En busca de la evidencia científica de la reencarnación
Mientras era editor jefe del Washington Post y recababa datos para uno de sus reportajes, Tom Shroder se topó por casualidad con un tal doctor Stevenson que investigaba sobre la reencarnación. Al principio pensó que era un chalado más, hasta que descubrió que se encontraba ante un prestigioso cirujano cardiovascular, primero de su promoción y con un asombroso currículo de publicaciones científicas. Su sorpresa se hizo aún mayor al averiguar que Stevenson había dedicado los últimos cuarenta años de su vida a documentar de manera exhaustiva y con rigurosos protocolos científicos más de dos mil de casos de personas en distintas partes del mundo que eran capaces de recordar sus vidas pasadas aportando datos objetivos que parecen verificar sus afirmaciones. ¿Podía ser real todo aquello?
Shroder decidió entonces poner a prueba aquella historia. Convenció a Stevenson para acompañarlo por varios de sus viajes por Líbano, India y Estados Unidos con el fin de conocer de primera mano tanto a los testigos como el método de trabajo de este singular investigador. Sin abandonar nunca su escepticismo como garante en la búsqueda de la verdad, Shroder va descubriendo una realidad que aparentemente debiera resultar inconcebible para un hombre educado en los principios materialistas que soportan la concepción de lo real en Occidente, y que sin embargo, caso tras caso, parecen tambalearse ante sus ojos y lo llevan a preguntarse: ¿qué somos en realidad? ¿Dónde se asienta nuestra identidad? ¿Realmente está ligada nuestra conciencia a nuestro cerebro, o es posible que ésta, tal como sugiere ya la física cuántica, pueda viajar de un cuerpo a otro?
Shroder decidió entonces poner a prueba aquella historia. Convenció a Stevenson para acompañarlo por varios de sus viajes por Líbano, India y Estados Unidos con el fin de conocer de primera mano tanto a los testigos como el método de trabajo de este singular investigador. Sin abandonar nunca su escepticismo como garante en la búsqueda de la verdad, Shroder va descubriendo una realidad que aparentemente debiera resultar inconcebible para un hombre educado en los principios materialistas que soportan la concepción de lo real en Occidente, y que sin embargo, caso tras caso, parecen tambalearse ante sus ojos y lo llevan a preguntarse: ¿qué somos en realidad? ¿Dónde se asienta nuestra identidad? ¿Realmente está ligada nuestra conciencia a nuestro cerebro, o es posible que ésta, tal como sugiere ya la física cuántica, pueda viajar de un cuerpo a otro?
344 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1999
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March 14, 2010
Old Souls : Compelling Evidence From Children Who Remember Past Lives
by Tom Shroder. isbn13: 9780684851921
A prominent psychiatrist with a "no nonsense" reputation stumbles across a cure for a patient with an intractable phobia. Putting her under hypnosis he asks her to keep going gradually further and further back into her past. He then asks her to go all of the way back to the event that gave her the phobia. To his shock, she goes "back" to before her birth, thousands of years, to an alleged former life in ancient Egypt where she remembers experiencing a particularly harsh manner of death. Upon awakening she is suddenly free of her phobia, after having had that freedom elude her for years during therapy.
The psychiatrist writes a popular book about that experience and skeptical Washington Post reporter Tom Shroder is sent to write an article about it.
Shroder does find a psychiatrist with a hitherto well deserved reputation for being a down to Earth clinician, but he isn't satisfied with the psychiatrist's interpretation of the case. Asking around, Shroder finds that a number of other prominent psychiatrists have stumbled across this phenomenon using hypnosis in their treatment. However, these other psychiatrists did not feel the need to believe that they had found evidence for reincarnation. It was enough that these experiences, whatever they were, helped their patients overcome their long held difficulties.
Shroder then found experts who investigated the reliability (or lack thereof ) of memories retrieved under hypnosis. The consensus of those professionals was that under hypnosis, the brain will do as it is told, even if it means manufacturing a reality to fit the request.
Through these experts Shroder learned of the existence of Dr. Ian Stevenson, a distinguished academic and a psychiatrist who had been traveling the globe for almost 30 years documenting cases of young children spontaneously remembering past lives -- without the aide of hypnosis or anything else.
These cases typically involved young children between the ages of 2 - 5 years of age who had no exposure whatsoever to the place or people from which they claimed to come from. These children would often coax their parents to take them to visit these foreign locations. Upon arrival, the children would know their way around the strange city, recognize people they never met, recall shared experiences nobody else knew about with complete strangers and have emotionally charged "reunions" with these strangers. Financial gain, the seeking of fame or a fetish for romantic fantasies were not issues in these cases.
In these cases Dr. Stevenson would typically interview the people involved, compare the accounts of various witnesses for consistency, verify what he could through public records, catalog the details methodically and then move on. Thats it. No movies of the week, no talk show appearances and no best sellers. Just cataloging data without making conclusions for nearly 3,000 cases over the course of 30 years, all over the world.
This lack of sensationalism impressed Shroder enough to seek out the aging Dr. Stevenson and accompany him on the last fact finding tour abroad of his career. Shroder felt Dr. Stevenson's different, down to Earth, neutral and data centered approach to reincarnation did not deserve to die in an academic obscurity. Shoder's goal was to publish a book about it, so that at least people would know of its existence.
Aside from Nu Age style cover art pictured above, which is an anathema to what impressed Shroder and what Shroder wanted to show to the world, he succeeded.
I'm guessing the spooky cover art was a concession to the publisher who wanted to make sure that at least some copies of the book sold.
The bulk of the book is a travel log of Shroder's trip to Lebanon and India with Dr. Stevenson where he follows up on cases he initially investigated decades ago, as well as investigating new cases.
Not all of the cases are as impressive in corroborated evidence as the summary of the book suggests. Rather than discouraging the reader, these accounts give the reader a sense of the frustrations Dr. Stevenson must have felt over the course of his 30 year career. Reaching the people involved in these cases was often an arduous task, only to yield information that Dr. Stevenson felt wasn't worthy of including in his collection.
Some of the cases described in the book were strong and were flat out intriguing.
Shroder did an excellent job of describing the environments he traveled to and the people he interacted with. I found his account of the trip to Lebanon particularly interesting. I learned a lot about the country that I did not know before, including that a sect of Islam exists, called the "Druse" that believes in reincarnation. I never would have guessed.
More importantly, Shroder plays an excellent "man on the street" narrator of his account of his time with Dr. Stevenson. He asks the questions the reader would want to ask, he is skeptical the way many readers would want to be skeptical and he feels the hopes that many of the readers would feel.
Having gotten a visceral experience of Dr. Stevenson's typical cases, instead of a stack of Dr. Stevenson's dry academic reports, Shroder ends the book as he started it. As an agnostic about the reality of reincarnation.
Shroder didn't believe that Dr. Stevenson's cases could be explained away via normal means. However, as with the serious academic critics of Dr. Stevenson's work, Shroder's only choice was to choose either reincarnation or some other out of the ordinary explanation ( none the more plausible). Instead, Shroder chose not to choose. Deciding that some things are just not known.
I don't think this book will turn anyone's world upside down. It will, make the reader stop to take a look into the void of uncertainty, if only for a moment.
This book was well written, sober in tone and fascinating.
October 8, 2007
I should say right away that I've been an Ian Stevenson admirer for a long time. I have not only his Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation in the original hardcover edition and the revised paperback edition, but I have nearly all of his other books, all four volumes of his Cases of the Reincarnation Type, the more recent European Cases of the Reincarnation Type, Telepathic Impressions - A Review and Report of 35 New Cases, Xenoglossy, Children Who Remember Previous Lives, Where Reincarnation and Biology Intersect, and... well, you get the idea. I have great respect for a man of Dr. Stevenson's stature, the decades of work he put into a very thankless area of research, and the tremendous care he took to always be alert for the false leads, the tempting but dubious "evidence", and easy answers. He was no doubt the greatest living authority on reincarnation as a subject of scientific inquiry until his recent passing, and he will be greatly missed. His contribution in this field was beyond reckoning.
But for all his virtues, Dr. Stevenson had one grave failing as an author: he was a scientist, first and foremost, and he wrote like one. If you're a scientist, reading his books, that's good. If you're not a scientist but a reader of more general literature, it's not so good. Dr. Stevenson's own writing is careful, scrupulous, detailed, meticulous... and sorry to say it, but rather dull. He's so busy avoiding the sensational and splashy, and getting all the detail in careful, studious investigations that he can be a slow, tedious read. You can't really fault him for that - he knew how many conventional so-called scientists couldn't wait to stick the metaphorical knife into him for the smallest slip-ups, a much more harsh and severe grilling than most of them ever got for being play-it-safe conformists and good little unquestioning materialist true believers. (And from where I sit, if there's anything a real scientist should never be, it's unquestioning.) Alas, all this caution and restraint doesn't make Stevenson any easier to read, and I have to take breathers between his books so I can have a little fun and perk myself up.
However, Tom Shroder is not a scientist. He's a reporter, a journalist, someone who is much better with a snappy phrase, a descriptive metaphor, maybe even occasionally a little light alliteration... a much more bouncy, flavorful read. Where this all comes together is that Shroder was allowed to "tag along" with Dr. Stevenson as he went about his business of traveling to remote parts of the world and meeting and talking to people, some of whom really didn't want to talk very much, about things their children did or said that suggested the probability of reincarnation. So this book is not so much an attempt to convince anyone that reincarnation is possible, probable or factual. I find it to be a rather telling portrait of Dr. Stevenson, however, and that's what I wanted. If I want convincing scientific evidence of reincarnation, I'll read Stevenson himself, and cut out the middle-man. But Stevenson never draws much of a portrait of himself at any time in his own writing, so this book filled a void that had gone unfilled for much too long. I enjoyed it greatly.
I suggest this book to those who enjoy biographies, or who find science inspiring but may not have the patience for the meticulous and painstaking detail, and particularly for those who appreciate Dr. Stevenson, but would like to celebrate his life and work with something a little more bracing and adventurous than his own serious writings. This book will almost allow you to have your cake and eat it too.
June 25, 2024
i don't believe in reincarnation but i reckon believing in reincarnation might make for a better world, that we might be more considerate of the environment and lives, especially if we didn't know what we might come back as. However the book mentioned that 29% of Americans believed in the possibilty of reincarnation. If that large a portion did believe then there would be a greater caring for the environment and well-being of animals.
The book is more about a journey the author takes with Ian Stevenson, a researcher on reincarnation, investigating cases in Lebanon and India. They are exclusively children, once they can talk, speaking of former lives, denying who they are now, insisting they are someone else and don't belong in the home they are now riving. In some instances they can speak foreign languages fluently (Hindi and Japanese given as examples).
In giving the background of the author and the researcher it takes a long time to get to the first case. It becomes further confusing that we are given instances of when the child recalls a past life and then many years later recalling the different pasts. It would make a better movie than a book, as there would be visual clues as to who is doing the speaking and which time period is being presented.
Interesting patterns emerge in that 50-60% of recollections are of violent deaths, when such deaths are only about 5-6% of demises. Also that "moving" into another body seems to occur at time of birth. Although later on Schroder says the average length of time from one death to another is eight months.
The book was written almost a quarter century ago. More contemporary examples may be noted at this link >
https://www.boredpanda.com/creepy-wei...
There is an apt description of India given on page 153 "Everywhere, people, cars, bicycles, animals, and garbage coexisted in stunning profusion, as if generations of life were all trying to happen at once."
The book is more about a journey the author takes with Ian Stevenson, a researcher on reincarnation, investigating cases in Lebanon and India. They are exclusively children, once they can talk, speaking of former lives, denying who they are now, insisting they are someone else and don't belong in the home they are now riving. In some instances they can speak foreign languages fluently (Hindi and Japanese given as examples).
In giving the background of the author and the researcher it takes a long time to get to the first case. It becomes further confusing that we are given instances of when the child recalls a past life and then many years later recalling the different pasts. It would make a better movie than a book, as there would be visual clues as to who is doing the speaking and which time period is being presented.
Interesting patterns emerge in that 50-60% of recollections are of violent deaths, when such deaths are only about 5-6% of demises. Also that "moving" into another body seems to occur at time of birth. Although later on Schroder says the average length of time from one death to another is eight months.
The book was written almost a quarter century ago. More contemporary examples may be noted at this link >
https://www.boredpanda.com/creepy-wei...
There is an apt description of India given on page 153 "Everywhere, people, cars, bicycles, animals, and garbage coexisted in stunning profusion, as if generations of life were all trying to happen at once."
February 5, 2009
Interesting. Not compelling. Written by a journalist, in that sort of style journalists write in when they want to sound like a novel.... more details than are relevant, so they are just messy (do I need to remember who this person is? does it matter what food they ate? will it appear relevant later? nope).
The cases are interesting! But, I think we're not getting the entire story. We get a report of a fraction of the cases Stevenson found over decades of research into 3,000 cases. What do we get from the data? well... the journalist doesn't really give us anything more than the presentation. Believe it or not. It's still up to you. He doesn't present what Stevenson, the researcher believes to be the relevance or explanations or meanings behind these cases. Too bad.
Interesting, not compelling. Very fast read.
The cases are interesting! But, I think we're not getting the entire story. We get a report of a fraction of the cases Stevenson found over decades of research into 3,000 cases. What do we get from the data? well... the journalist doesn't really give us anything more than the presentation. Believe it or not. It's still up to you. He doesn't present what Stevenson, the researcher believes to be the relevance or explanations or meanings behind these cases. Too bad.
Interesting, not compelling. Very fast read.
September 10, 2012
First things first: I would like to try and review this book, rather than reviewing the notion of reincarnation, or even the question of whether or not this book changed my views on that subject.
I have to admit the book feels a little threadbare at times for lack of more cases, or cases with more gripping specifics, or cases that function more convincingly as airtight evidence for the reincarnation hypothesis. But that is how one feels as a reader, perhaps on some level hoping for a more novelistic adventure that wraps up conclusively by the end, having settled something. (After all, if we think of the time, trouble and expense it has taken our research team to travel around the world and gather these cases over the course of years, it's cheeky to ask them for more without giving them a grant for more staff.) Really, though, that narrative flatness is just one more telltale of what I like best about it: the author's doggedly rigorous approach to his own epistemology, and his subject's. Not a professional scientist, Tom Schroder nevertheless understands in his bones the ceaseless, methodical vigil for unaccounted variables that must characterize well-conducted scientific research. That makes him exactly the sort of person I want evaluating and presenting the case for a controversial-at-best body of research.
The bottom line, if you don't mind a spoiler, is that a good hard look into Ian Stevenson's work makes clear that reincarnation is a viable hypothesis that must in good conscience be taken seriously, for want of any other, more plausible explanation of the persistent phenomenon of children reporting memories from other lives--and that it falls somewhere short of proof that reincarnation is the correct explanation. The book does not conclude, as others have claimed, with the author's being convinced. He is interested and sympathetic to Stevenson's line of inquiry, he has some specific quibbles and other hypotheses to which he is also sympathetic, and he is still watching and waiting, warily, to see how the evidence turns next. And so he will continue, unto his grave. Like any good scientist.
---
I will add that I have seen before the phenomenon Dr. Stevenson confronts in showing his work to the greater scientific community: people who dare to conduct serious inquiries into subjects widely considered superstitious bunk, no matter how pure their method, will be dismissed out of hand by a majority of professional scientists. And they know this, and so one finds ever and anon the spectacle of a scientist whose rigor, both in conducting research and in presenting it, is far above and beyond the usual standard within the profession, but whose work is as lightly dismissed as the rambles of a drunken undergraduate. It is critically important for scientists to remember that science is a process, and only a process: a method for pursuing questions, not a reputation or a title or a habit or a stance. And that process, the scientific method, includes no step for determining which questions are the right ones to pursue.
And so all scientific inquiry is governed, at its inception, by a decisionmaking process that is never scientific in its own right. The choice of which questions to ask is beyond the reach of the sainted method itself. The profession would do well to remember that, always, and be warned against hubris, the scientific method's most lethal and remorseless enemy.
I have to admit the book feels a little threadbare at times for lack of more cases, or cases with more gripping specifics, or cases that function more convincingly as airtight evidence for the reincarnation hypothesis. But that is how one feels as a reader, perhaps on some level hoping for a more novelistic adventure that wraps up conclusively by the end, having settled something. (After all, if we think of the time, trouble and expense it has taken our research team to travel around the world and gather these cases over the course of years, it's cheeky to ask them for more without giving them a grant for more staff.) Really, though, that narrative flatness is just one more telltale of what I like best about it: the author's doggedly rigorous approach to his own epistemology, and his subject's. Not a professional scientist, Tom Schroder nevertheless understands in his bones the ceaseless, methodical vigil for unaccounted variables that must characterize well-conducted scientific research. That makes him exactly the sort of person I want evaluating and presenting the case for a controversial-at-best body of research.
The bottom line, if you don't mind a spoiler, is that a good hard look into Ian Stevenson's work makes clear that reincarnation is a viable hypothesis that must in good conscience be taken seriously, for want of any other, more plausible explanation of the persistent phenomenon of children reporting memories from other lives--and that it falls somewhere short of proof that reincarnation is the correct explanation. The book does not conclude, as others have claimed, with the author's being convinced. He is interested and sympathetic to Stevenson's line of inquiry, he has some specific quibbles and other hypotheses to which he is also sympathetic, and he is still watching and waiting, warily, to see how the evidence turns next. And so he will continue, unto his grave. Like any good scientist.
---
I will add that I have seen before the phenomenon Dr. Stevenson confronts in showing his work to the greater scientific community: people who dare to conduct serious inquiries into subjects widely considered superstitious bunk, no matter how pure their method, will be dismissed out of hand by a majority of professional scientists. And they know this, and so one finds ever and anon the spectacle of a scientist whose rigor, both in conducting research and in presenting it, is far above and beyond the usual standard within the profession, but whose work is as lightly dismissed as the rambles of a drunken undergraduate. It is critically important for scientists to remember that science is a process, and only a process: a method for pursuing questions, not a reputation or a title or a habit or a stance. And that process, the scientific method, includes no step for determining which questions are the right ones to pursue.
And so all scientific inquiry is governed, at its inception, by a decisionmaking process that is never scientific in its own right. The choice of which questions to ask is beyond the reach of the sainted method itself. The profession would do well to remember that, always, and be warned against hubris, the scientific method's most lethal and remorseless enemy.
January 10, 2020
Waste of time. It is written in a novel / story type of style. Not much substance apart from the odd case here and there. I got half way through and just thought this is a waste of my time.
The guy might be journalist or writer but going through this book was like walking in treacle. I want facts and information presented in a way that is easy to read and digest. That is not what this guy provides.
Don't waste your time reading this book unless you have nothing better to do wit your time and want something while you watch paint dry or the grass grow.
The guy might be journalist or writer but going through this book was like walking in treacle. I want facts and information presented in a way that is easy to read and digest. That is not what this guy provides.
Don't waste your time reading this book unless you have nothing better to do wit your time and want something while you watch paint dry or the grass grow.
July 20, 2013
I almost gave up on this book - for the first 20% it seems more like a travel journal than the title suggests, with detailed descriptions of just about everything and everyone, but it did eventually get to the stories that made me buy the book in the first place. They were interesting, thought provoking and somehow unsatisfactory, partly because the original lives were mostly lived in the next village and also that there seemed to be conflicting accounts from witnesses and family members. The author's feelings about them throughout seemed pretty much akin to mine.
The best part of the book IMO was the last section, when the author investigates a couple of cases in the US (rather than in Lebanon and India where the others were), and also relates an incident that occurred when he was a young man, which gives him insight into his feelings about the cases he has seen and puts everything into a special perspective.
The best part of the book IMO was the last section, when the author investigates a couple of cases in the US (rather than in Lebanon and India where the others were), and also relates an incident that occurred when he was a young man, which gives him insight into his feelings about the cases he has seen and puts everything into a special perspective.
January 29, 2009
This is non-fiction which I usually fail to finish. I dont know why I picked this up. It was really facsinating. It is a fairly scientific book again not my usual fare but I glided right through it. It certainly seems to more than a fluke but the real question is why does it happen more in some areas of the world than others.
October 21, 2009
I read this book years ago and still remember it vividly...NOT a typical Shirley mcclaine "I was Cleopatra" type book. This is written by a journalist who is somewhat skeptical of the idea of reincarantion. To me what makes this story so fascinating, and i have to admit sad, are his stories of these children. He mostly deals with children in India (where reincarantion is obviously taken for granted) He also has some stories from Lebanon. (The Druze Christians also believe in reincarantion which I didn't realize.) In the last chapter he talks about an American case, and maybe because it was in America I found it the most compelling. A haunting, thought provoking read.
March 1, 2021
An interesting read if you believe in reincarnation or interested in the subject.
In these cases, they consider all aspects. They don't just flat-out believe what the subject is saying or what the family is saying. Just because you have to take into account that there can be some coaching, clues that can be derived from the environment, and so on.
So it's good to be a skeptic.
That being said, I had an issue with these same-family cases, because they mentioned that a child could have overheard a conversation between adults and make a story based on that.
This could be the case, but speaking from personal experience, every family keeps secrets. Things they don't speak about. Things that only come to light when a person dies, and the family goes to their stuff.
For example:
I was 20 years old before I even knew that when my mom married my dad, that was her second marriage. They did not speak of that first marriage, which my mom considered a mistake. She actually got a bid mad at my grandma for mentioning it.
Second example: my mom only found out more about her uncle that died before she was born, after her own dad died. The things she learned was only through letters she found. So there's a lot that she doesn't know. He was never mentioned in conversation;
I get that some families may be very open about their family history. Good on them.
But in my experience, and what I hear about friends, a lot is still kept quiet about. Like even about the younger generation.
In these cases, they consider all aspects. They don't just flat-out believe what the subject is saying or what the family is saying. Just because you have to take into account that there can be some coaching, clues that can be derived from the environment, and so on.
So it's good to be a skeptic.
That being said, I had an issue with these same-family cases, because they mentioned that a child could have overheard a conversation between adults and make a story based on that.
This could be the case, but speaking from personal experience, every family keeps secrets. Things they don't speak about. Things that only come to light when a person dies, and the family goes to their stuff.
For example:
I was 20 years old before I even knew that when my mom married my dad, that was her second marriage. They did not speak of that first marriage, which my mom considered a mistake. She actually got a bid mad at my grandma for mentioning it.
Second example: my mom only found out more about her uncle that died before she was born, after her own dad died. The things she learned was only through letters she found. So there's a lot that she doesn't know. He was never mentioned in conversation;
I get that some families may be very open about their family history. Good on them.
But in my experience, and what I hear about friends, a lot is still kept quiet about. Like even about the younger generation.
May 12, 2023
This was another thrift store find. I want to preface this that I found a bookmark in the book leftover from the person who read it before. The bookmark was a pamphlet for a convention for New Age/Holistic medicine and education. I died laughing.
It’s additionally amusing because the [original] subtitle of the book is/was: ‘The Scientific Evidence for Past Lives’ made me cackle in the middle of the book aisle. It should also be noted that said subtitle has since been changed to ‘Compelling Evidence from Children Who Remember Past Lives.’
I also didn’t know when I threw this cart into my basket that this book was apparently first published in 1999. Kinda explains a lot about how outdated the psychology/psychiatry once I really got into the meat of the book.
Also, just to be up front: I’m not hating on reincarnation itself. It’s a fascinating subject and I’m always up for reading stories of people remembering supposed past lives. I don’t believe or disbelieve in it. It’d be cool if it was true, though. I’d want to come back as someone’s spoiled and well-taken-care-of lazy housecat, or a colossal alligator left to live out my days being ancient and undisturbed. But – It’s the ‘scientific’ evidence part of the original subtitle of the book that made me want to read the book really to see what they consider their ‘scientific’ research.
Ultimately, the book is about a journalist [the author] who meets with and joins on the research and adventures of Ian Stevenson, an aging psychologist-turned-parapsychologist who was concluding his research on reincarnation and past lives. Stevenson has been doing this for years and years, and was doing followups with previous interview-ee’s asking more information and those who know them/have witnessed their accounts of past lives, primary children.
The duo [and various rotating assistants] in the book visit three places; Beirut, India, and the US.
The author likes to go on rants about the environments. And by rants I mean racist microaggressions [and in some cases, not micro or subtle at all] about every other city outside of the US they went to. He was always exasperated in surprise when someone in another country knew English, and always always made sure to let you know when he was in a slum based on how he thought people were unscrupulous. Sure, this was written in the 90’s but the blatant racism-without-saying-a-slur was pretty bad, and was distracting in a lot of cases. Especially in India where he had to visit some slum/lower caste area and essentially called it the end of the world and would not shut up about the dung-useage there [as fuel, etc]. He went on and on and on and on.
Throughout the book, the lot of them go place to place for their interviews, interviewing different children [some that have grown since Stevenson’s last visit], their family, associates, and other witnesses to their claims of past lives. It’s a lot of back and forth between people and lots of travel in between. The interviews and some pictures were documented. In addition to that there’s a lot of conversation between the author/journalist and various other psychologists/psychiatrists/scientists/Stevenson sort of battling back and forth between if what they were documenting was truly ‘evidence’ or not.
But at the very least the journalist/author appears to be mostly a skeptic throughout the majority of the book. But of course at the end, as expected, his skepticism starts to waver.
Of course, if you’re going into this book expecting ‘real’ evidence of reincarnation, you’re going to be disappointed. If you want to read about genuinely interesting and seemingly unexplainable coincidences that relate to reincarnation and past lives, you’l probably like this book. Myself? Meh.
Also, I really just want to highlight this excerpt:
From a Los Angeles Times column written after two Arkansas teenagers opened fire on their classmates in early 1998:
"The reincarnated souls of Jack the Ripper and the Boston Strangler are responsible for the recent spate of schoolyard shootings, says a Laguna Beach homeopathic expert. In an interview with Wireless Flash News Service, Frederick Bell claims such tragedies are the work of long-dead serial killers who reincarnate before the spirit world can rehabilitate them. Bell says the solution is to require all kindergartners to undergo a hypnotic past-life regression to see if they were homicidal maniacs in a previous life. He also suggests that kids wear pyramid hats to 'detoxify negative energies.'"
...wow.
I give Old Souls 2/5 Past Lives
“I, who have always felt mortality in my marrow, who has stared inward but never seen a ripple nor heard a whisper of any life but my own, who have seen people near me disappear into death with an awesome and unappealable finality and learned in my flesh, where it counts, that the only thing abiding is an unyielding sense of diminishment.”
It’s additionally amusing because the [original] subtitle of the book is/was: ‘The Scientific Evidence for Past Lives’ made me cackle in the middle of the book aisle. It should also be noted that said subtitle has since been changed to ‘Compelling Evidence from Children Who Remember Past Lives.’
I also didn’t know when I threw this cart into my basket that this book was apparently first published in 1999. Kinda explains a lot about how outdated the psychology/psychiatry once I really got into the meat of the book.
Also, just to be up front: I’m not hating on reincarnation itself. It’s a fascinating subject and I’m always up for reading stories of people remembering supposed past lives. I don’t believe or disbelieve in it. It’d be cool if it was true, though. I’d want to come back as someone’s spoiled and well-taken-care-of lazy housecat, or a colossal alligator left to live out my days being ancient and undisturbed. But – It’s the ‘scientific’ evidence part of the original subtitle of the book that made me want to read the book really to see what they consider their ‘scientific’ research.
Ultimately, the book is about a journalist [the author] who meets with and joins on the research and adventures of Ian Stevenson, an aging psychologist-turned-parapsychologist who was concluding his research on reincarnation and past lives. Stevenson has been doing this for years and years, and was doing followups with previous interview-ee’s asking more information and those who know them/have witnessed their accounts of past lives, primary children.
The duo [and various rotating assistants] in the book visit three places; Beirut, India, and the US.
The author likes to go on rants about the environments. And by rants I mean racist microaggressions [and in some cases, not micro or subtle at all] about every other city outside of the US they went to. He was always exasperated in surprise when someone in another country knew English, and always always made sure to let you know when he was in a slum based on how he thought people were unscrupulous. Sure, this was written in the 90’s but the blatant racism-without-saying-a-slur was pretty bad, and was distracting in a lot of cases. Especially in India where he had to visit some slum/lower caste area and essentially called it the end of the world and would not shut up about the dung-useage there [as fuel, etc]. He went on and on and on and on.
Throughout the book, the lot of them go place to place for their interviews, interviewing different children [some that have grown since Stevenson’s last visit], their family, associates, and other witnesses to their claims of past lives. It’s a lot of back and forth between people and lots of travel in between. The interviews and some pictures were documented. In addition to that there’s a lot of conversation between the author/journalist and various other psychologists/psychiatrists/scientists/Stevenson sort of battling back and forth between if what they were documenting was truly ‘evidence’ or not.
But at the very least the journalist/author appears to be mostly a skeptic throughout the majority of the book. But of course at the end, as expected, his skepticism starts to waver.
Of course, if you’re going into this book expecting ‘real’ evidence of reincarnation, you’re going to be disappointed. If you want to read about genuinely interesting and seemingly unexplainable coincidences that relate to reincarnation and past lives, you’l probably like this book. Myself? Meh.
Also, I really just want to highlight this excerpt:
From a Los Angeles Times column written after two Arkansas teenagers opened fire on their classmates in early 1998:
"The reincarnated souls of Jack the Ripper and the Boston Strangler are responsible for the recent spate of schoolyard shootings, says a Laguna Beach homeopathic expert. In an interview with Wireless Flash News Service, Frederick Bell claims such tragedies are the work of long-dead serial killers who reincarnate before the spirit world can rehabilitate them. Bell says the solution is to require all kindergartners to undergo a hypnotic past-life regression to see if they were homicidal maniacs in a previous life. He also suggests that kids wear pyramid hats to 'detoxify negative energies.'"
...wow.
I give Old Souls 2/5 Past Lives
“I, who have always felt mortality in my marrow, who has stared inward but never seen a ripple nor heard a whisper of any life but my own, who have seen people near me disappear into death with an awesome and unappealable finality and learned in my flesh, where it counts, that the only thing abiding is an unyielding sense of diminishment.”
April 25, 2024
Interesting read. It definitely raises more questions than it answers, but not necessarily in a negative way. I’m more a believer after reading than I was before. The end gave me chills.
November 4, 2007
I found this book a bit underwhelming. The subject matter is interesting as is the doctor who has undertaken these studies. But the author is annoying and presents his own thoughts and opinions on the cases of these children when you'd much rather hear what Dr. Stevenson has to say. No offense, but do we really care about this guy's "unexplainable" experiences? No.
June 29, 2008
A journalist's account of shadowing Dr Ian Stevenson documenting possible past-life/reincarnation cases in children, in as scientific a method as possible. That by itself is worth the read; then add to that getting the author's perspective of the chaotic life in Beirut & India. Highly recommended.
September 9, 2020
I have always been fascinated with reincarnation.
I strongly believe it to be real, and after reading these stories, my opinion is strongly confirmed.
The only reason why I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is because all the stories are from other other researchers.
Nonetheless, all breathtaking.
I strongly believe it to be real, and after reading these stories, my opinion is strongly confirmed.
The only reason why I gave this 4 stars instead of 5 is because all the stories are from other other researchers.
Nonetheless, all breathtaking.
May 29, 2017
Fascinating... and an excellent presentation of science in comprehensive narrative. Makes me want to read more like this.
February 25, 2020
More memoir than a investigation/critique of Ian Stevenson's work.
For those preferring this, it will be an enjoyable read, for those looking for more not so much.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars.
For those preferring this, it will be an enjoyable read, for those looking for more not so much.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars.
November 5, 2024
all the narrative parts uninspired, racist, and overly invested in the idea of The Author's Conversion as the emotional through line. all of the interview parts batshit!!!!! phenomenal!!!!! everything on earth is real!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 26, 2011
Out of things to read I found this on the shelf of my work's "library" where we can share books with each other. The cover intrigued me and the concept intrigued me. However, as a whole I found the actual book a little less intriguing.
The author, Tom Shroder, decides to investigate the paranormal and more specifically the concept of reincarnation. He bounces around in the beginning preface of the book talking about different researchers in the field, but then finally settles on writing this book about Dr. Ian Stevenson. Stevenson has traveled the world investigating claims of reincarnation and to Shroder's luck, invites him to come along to some of his last trips to Lebanon and India.
Their first stop is Lebanon where they meet with several families, and with the help of their translator Majd, talk with them about their experiences. Most of the people claiming reincarnation here are now older and this is more of a follow-up of Stevenson's original work. They first started experiencing different memories of a child and people around them claimed that they knew things only family members would have known. What makes their stories even more compelling as they are not picking out rich people to say they were once, but rather everyday people. One person, Daniel, believes that he was a mechanic in the past life. So clearly, for some, money is not a motive in these claims.
They then move on to India where they meet a couple children claiming they were reincarnated, and attempt to track down the story of another, who didn't experience their "reincarnation" until they were eighteen. They are largely skeptical of this story, especially when they cannot contact the woman claiming it and her family gives them trouble. At the end of the book they move on to some cases in the United States, but they seem rushed and not near as much detail is given about them.
Shroder, as a writer, to me is boring. He has such a fascinating subject with reincarnation but he jumps around so much and gives so much useless detail that the reading has trouble mucking about through this book. If he had cleaned up his writing and included more on the actual research instead of all their issues traveling (he goes on and on about the unsafe driving conditions in India) I think I would have enjoyed this book quite a bit more. However, while I am complaining about this detail of his writing, had the book been about traveling to these places it would have been immensely enjoyable. The fact is though, this book was about reincarnation and should have leaned more to writing about that.
Shroder is also a bit waffly on his beliefs on the subject. He offers plenty of criticism in one paragraph, then moves on to the next to be incredulous at some of the facts presented. Yet, he never comes out and clearly states what his reaction or beliefs are when presented with the evidence and face to face testimonies. I think its a bit of a cop out that he never fully says what he is thinking.
An interesting concept but he could have done so much more with it. Because of his way of bouncing about the subject matter, I only rate this book as average.
Old Souls
Copyright 1999
253 pages + a section of pictures
Review by M. Reynard 2010
The author, Tom Shroder, decides to investigate the paranormal and more specifically the concept of reincarnation. He bounces around in the beginning preface of the book talking about different researchers in the field, but then finally settles on writing this book about Dr. Ian Stevenson. Stevenson has traveled the world investigating claims of reincarnation and to Shroder's luck, invites him to come along to some of his last trips to Lebanon and India.
Their first stop is Lebanon where they meet with several families, and with the help of their translator Majd, talk with them about their experiences. Most of the people claiming reincarnation here are now older and this is more of a follow-up of Stevenson's original work. They first started experiencing different memories of a child and people around them claimed that they knew things only family members would have known. What makes their stories even more compelling as they are not picking out rich people to say they were once, but rather everyday people. One person, Daniel, believes that he was a mechanic in the past life. So clearly, for some, money is not a motive in these claims.
They then move on to India where they meet a couple children claiming they were reincarnated, and attempt to track down the story of another, who didn't experience their "reincarnation" until they were eighteen. They are largely skeptical of this story, especially when they cannot contact the woman claiming it and her family gives them trouble. At the end of the book they move on to some cases in the United States, but they seem rushed and not near as much detail is given about them.
Shroder, as a writer, to me is boring. He has such a fascinating subject with reincarnation but he jumps around so much and gives so much useless detail that the reading has trouble mucking about through this book. If he had cleaned up his writing and included more on the actual research instead of all their issues traveling (he goes on and on about the unsafe driving conditions in India) I think I would have enjoyed this book quite a bit more. However, while I am complaining about this detail of his writing, had the book been about traveling to these places it would have been immensely enjoyable. The fact is though, this book was about reincarnation and should have leaned more to writing about that.
Shroder is also a bit waffly on his beliefs on the subject. He offers plenty of criticism in one paragraph, then moves on to the next to be incredulous at some of the facts presented. Yet, he never comes out and clearly states what his reaction or beliefs are when presented with the evidence and face to face testimonies. I think its a bit of a cop out that he never fully says what he is thinking.
An interesting concept but he could have done so much more with it. Because of his way of bouncing about the subject matter, I only rate this book as average.
Old Souls
Copyright 1999
253 pages + a section of pictures
Review by M. Reynard 2010
May 14, 2008
This book was extremely interesting. It was interesting not just because it was about reincarnation, but I really enjoyed reading about the countries the author visited. Having never visited India and Lebanon, it was a wonderful depiction of life in these places. Well I don't know if wonderful could accurately describe the way that some of these families are forced to live. But it definitely made me appreciate things that we may sometimes take for granted. Such as plumbing. I was also really impressed with how accepting people in Lebanon and India are of reincarnation. It is a part of their daily lives and religious beliefs. The author made a very funny and accurate statement. He said that it is hard to get funding for past life research because in the east it is so commonplace that they wonder why you would ever need to research it and in the west it is such an 'out there' concept that they feel that it is a waste of money.
June 13, 2010
Aside from the interesting case studies, I was most interested in the perspective the author takes on mainstream science and its conservatism. One interesting dilemma for Dr. Stevenson, a medical doctor who later specialized in psychiatry, was that in Western culture, people know that reincarnation is impossible, and don't understand why he would want to make any sort of serious inquiry into it, while in many Eastern cultures, they know that reincarnation occurs, and don't understand why he would want to make an inquiry into it.
Ultimately the author, a journalist who traveled with Stevenson on a couple of his last field studies, comes to the conclusion that there is something out there, but while he can't prove reincarnation, neither can he discount its evidence out of hand.
Square one. Still, an interesting read.
Ultimately the author, a journalist who traveled with Stevenson on a couple of his last field studies, comes to the conclusion that there is something out there, but while he can't prove reincarnation, neither can he discount its evidence out of hand.
Square one. Still, an interesting read.
February 10, 2010
I appreciate the descriptions given by the author regarding the process by which the case studies were collected and the follow-up meetings at later dates. I was able to collect about nine pages of notes and books for further reading, but that is a bit atypical of me when I am researching a topic like reincarnation. Overall I found this book to be interesting from a social perspective, but a little light on actual content or theories provided by Stevenson's regarding his research of reincarnation and children. One fascinating topic I wish would have been more fully explored is the birthmarks on children and how they may or may not correspond to the wounds on the body of their PP (previous personality).
September 11, 2010
Following a scientist around the globe who is researching cases of children remembering past lives , Shroder tags along as a skeptic to chronicle, first hand, the children who remember significant details of former lives to the point of telling their parents they don't belong in their current family and want to go back to their past life.
Much like the book, Fingerprints of God, Old Souls suffers from the very same problem - a journalist's view of reincarnation. As much as I wanted to really like this book, it suffers from the journalist eye for describing the environment vs. offering more insight on the topic. With only a few cases highlighted in the book, Shroder spends too much time in the minute details of the setting, people and his own thoughts.
Much like the book, Fingerprints of God, Old Souls suffers from the very same problem - a journalist's view of reincarnation. As much as I wanted to really like this book, it suffers from the journalist eye for describing the environment vs. offering more insight on the topic. With only a few cases highlighted in the book, Shroder spends too much time in the minute details of the setting, people and his own thoughts.
July 25, 2024
I really enjoyed this book it’s very interesting if you’re interested in the topic of reincarnation. The voice of the book is also a skeptic or starts off as a skeptic and makes the insights more fulfilling, interesting and believable. The case studies were really interesting to read and I especially enjoyed when the author included pictures of the “subjects” alongside who they were or believed to be in their past lives. The evidence is really compelling and the reasonings were strong however I found the book to become a bit repetitive after a while which made it a little hard to finish towards the end and keep your mind engaged in the book. I would still recommend as it’s an interesting read
July 27, 2017
Surprising. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this book, but it was well thought out and put together. I felt like he was trying to collect data as a scientist. Although sometimes I definitely felt they were stretching a bit, some accounts seemed really unexplainable and I do feel as though they often asked questions and brought up counter arguments when applicable, for the most part. I appreciate the attempt to be objective, even though it wasn't always successful. It has me questioning the possibility of reincarnation, which I was definitely not expecting to happen from reading this book. Enjoyable and easy to read and digest as well.
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May 14, 2008I have never had a huge opinion on the subject. The book is fasinating. The author,who is a journalist, followed a scientist around the world to meet with children who spoke of the lives they lived before. The scientist then went with the children to the families these children said they belonged to in their past life. Often the children knew things about the families that no one could explain. Their explination is that indeed these children were these people they claimed to have been. I don't know if it qualifies as "scientific evidence" but it is very fascinating.
August 19, 2008
This book was reccomended to me by a great friend and roommate of mine. If you've ever been curious about reincarnation you should definately check out this book. The memories from a previous life somehow remain in young children from Lebanon. The doctor follows up with these children years after their original statements to see what they remember and how much of the information has changed. Some of the children remain friends with their old families in their new body. It's an intense read and I suggest you go pick up a copy, you'll have goosebumps!
January 10, 2015
Writer/journalist Tom Shroder accompanies researcher and psychiatrist Dr. Ian Stevenson as he collects cases of children who believe they are remembering a previous life. In this absolutely fascinating book, no one draws any conclusion except that more intensive attention needs to be paid to this remarkable phenomenon that may or may not be leading us into and understanding of the nature of the soul. Well written and very accessible.
May 9, 2015
Writer/journalist Tom Shroder accompanies researcher and psychiatrist Dr. Ian Stevenson as he collects cases of children who believe they are remembering a previous life. In this absolutely fascinating book, no one draws any conclusion except that more intensive attention needs to be paid to this remarkable phenomenon that may or may not be leading us into and understanding of the nature of the soul. Well written and very accessible.
February 29, 2008
Ian Stevenson's work, which author Thomas Shroder examines, is well known but falls short of being utterly convincing, at least to me. Old Souls is a fascinating book, not because it either proves or disproves reincarnation, but because it illustrates the process by which the author examines the anecdotal evidence and then makes his own, admittedly tentative, conclusions.
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